Deep History of Pacific Flyway

From Oct. 22 through Nov. 16, 2012, I will be resident at Playa, along the shoreline of Summer Lake, OR. I will be working on the project, Understanding the Deep History of the Pacific Flyway. I look forward to studying and experiencing how Great Basin lakes and marshes are used by the many species of migratory birds who have supported humans throughout 14,000 years of history in western North America.

2 comments on “Deep History of Pacific Flyway
  1. Hello Madonna, Congratulations on getting funding for this.
    Reading some of the herring posts and the other herring work
    you (and others) have done makes me wonder about herring in Norton Sound and beyond. Thinking about the distribution of these northernmost herring fisheries, I wonder about Museum and other collections from Denbigh, Difchahak, and other coastal sites. Without going back to some of the original reports, I’m not sure whether or not the deposits were screened for smallish fish bones. There might be bulk samples still in the accessioned collections. Would be interesting to chat about this next month in Anchorage, and of course we can correspond via email too. The ADF&G area fisheries biologists might have some ideas too, but you’ve probably been in contact with them. Cheers, Richard

    • You have raised excellent questions, Richard. Thanks for your thoughts and great advice. I very much doubt much screening was done, because so much attention has been focused on defining houses and other structures in the arctic. As it turns out, the Nash Harbor herring bones are not herring after all!!! I examined them last Friday and found they are a small gadid (tomcod, small walleye pollock perhaps). I am going to photograph them with a microscope and post the photo. Establishing the northernmost range of herring is going to be an interesting outcome (hopefully!).

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